these two weren't the only ones in the middle  of a lip-syncing scandal in the early 90s

so were cnc music factory the group exploded onto  the worldwide music scene with their very first  

song little did fans know however the woman they  were seeing on their tv screens in the music video  

mouthing the words wasn't actually  the one belting out the catchy hug  

american musical group cnc music factory was  formed in 1989 by johnson city tennessee born  

david cole and brooklyn new york native robert  clavellas they became friends in the late 80s when  

they both performed at better days a historic  dance club in manhattan with robert as the  

resident dj and david as the resident keyboardist  in 1987 they formed a short-lived house music  

group called two puerto ricans a black man and a  dominican the group also included fellow producers  

david morales and chep nunez they released a few  songs including the minor uk hit do it properly  

before disbanding robert and david then continued  to record music together under the name the 28th  

street crew which previously used the alias the  done properly posse in 1989 the duo released an  

album titled i need a rhythm and its title  track and lead single became a top five hit  

on the dance chart continuing on with the pattern  of creating a new name to go with every iteration  

of their group robert and david along with rapper  freedom williams formed the crew in 1990. robert  

and david met the brooklyn-born queen's raised  freedom at new york's quad recording studios  

where he was working as a janitor while attending  school they released a single called get dumb for  

your body the song featured an unauthorized sample  of musician and producer boy jarvis's 1983 song  

the music got me boyd filed a lawsuit against  david and robert as well as the record company  

and the court ruled in his favor this wouldn't  be the last time that robert and david would get  

accused of stealing not giving credit where credit  was due and ending up in court because of it

while creating their own music robert and  david also produced for many other artists  

including the cover girls lisa lisa and cult jam  and mariah carey they even created their own girl  

group called seduction the group didn't last very  long but they did manage to land on the hot 100  

with a handful of tracks off their debut  album including their number two hit  

two to make it right and their very first  chart entry you're my one and only true  

love an interesting fact about the latter  track was that the members of seduction  

are only heard on the backup vocals the lead  vocal was sung by disco veteran martha wash  

the same martha wash that was previously one  half of the duo two tons of fun who served as  

disco r b singers sylvester's official backup  singers as well as the weather girls most known  

for their number one dance hit its reigning  men david had already known martha for a while  

since they worked together during her time  in the weather girls so he asked her to sing  

on a demo for the seduction song as well as  others remember that little tidbit for later

he however chose to also leave her vocals  on the final version and in the liner notes  

she was only credited as a backup vocalist  that didn't fly with martha and she sued  

crazy enough martha would also soon play a very  similar role in the stories of cnc music factory  

as well as italian house music group black  box but we'll say the latter for another video

later that same year robert and david once again  decided to form a new group this time they chose  

to incorporate their surnames and settled on  calling themselves cnc music factory and signed  

a multi-album deal with colombia the whole idea  for the group was that robert and david would be  

the only consistent members and that they'd work  with different vocalists in december cnc music  

factory released their debut album gonna make you  sweat their debut single of the same name released  

the month before became an international hit and  peaked at number one on the billboard hot 100.

the song also featured a rap by freedom former  member of their previous group the crew as well  

as an unknown artist who would make herself known  through the courts cnc music factory would be hit  

with a lawsuit by martha wash that's right those  uncredited vocals on the chorus belong to her

even though it may not appear to some martha  insists that she wasn't the lawsuit-happy type  

in fact after discovering that the group  was using liberian singer zelma davis in  

the music video she attempted to negotiate  with robert and david her sleeve credits and  

royalties they weren't having it so martha  did what she had to do and in december 1991  

filed a lawsuit in the los angeles superior court  against the duo charging the producers and their  

record company sony music entertainment with fraud  deceptive packaging and commercial appropriation  

allegedly it all boiled down to record labels and  producers believing that her look wouldn't sell  

so the music videos featured much  smaller women pretending to be her  

freedom even said as much in an interview with  a current affair stating i tell you this i don't  

mean to be rude harsh callous i'm a lion or  vilifying but i'd rather look at them on stage

after the case was settled sony  made an unprecedented request to mtv  

to add a disclaimer to the beginning of the gonna  make you sweat video whenever they aired it that  

it was actually martha's vocals being heard and  not zelma's as far as zelma was concerned she  

wasn't doing anything wrong in a 2014 interview  with rolling stone magazine she revealed what  

she was told from people behind the scenes the  record label production company and management  

told me that it was okay to lip-sync in the  video as long as i sing live in public i was 19  

inexperienced and extremely gullible on the video  set i told members of the crew that it wasn't  

me singing this particular song as words spread  throughout the set that i was revealing this fact  

label representatives and our management pulled  me aside and asked that i stopped speaking about  

whose vocals they were later on robert and david  claimed that they planned to make martha a part of  

cnc but that her lawsuit over the seduction track  made them bulk at the idea then again at various  

points they also said that martha didn't want to  be part of the group nevertheless the song has  

gone on to become a major pop music cliche today  it's still a go-to anthem at sporting events and  

wedding parties and has soundtracked countless  movies and tv shows over the years including  

space jam the fresh prince of bel air the simpsons  and the office even in the midst of the lawsuit  

drama the group forged ahead and continued their  string of success with the release of two top ten  

singles here we go let's rock and roll and things  that make you go hmm inspired by a phrase uttered  

periodically by late night talk show host arsenio  hall both tracks reached goal status in the us  

and remained lawsuit proof since zelma actually  did sing lead on them in august 1991 the album's  

final single just a touch of love was released and  earned the group their fourth number one dance hit  

the song was also featured on the soundtrack of  the musical comedy film sister act the following  

year the group released the single keep it coming  dance so you can't dance no more featuring deborah  

cooper and rapper q unique on vocals the single  became their fifth song to top the billboard dance  

chart and was also featured on the soundtrack  of the comedy horror film buffy the vampire  

slayer by the end of that year the group had  earned a total of four american music awards  

cnc were loving their success and no doubt feeling  themselves so much that not only did they mention  

the yet to be settled lawsuit filed by martha but  downplayed the whole thing on live television at  

the 1992 american music awards i really am deeply  grateful to you all for believing in us and not  

falling prey to to this whole lip-syncing  thing because we are not a lipstick group  

we are for real 100 and miss zellman  right here can sing that yeah

in 1994 cnc music factory experienced a lineup  change martha whose lawsuit with the group  

had just been settled out of court was asked  surprisingly to join as a full-time vocalist  

freedom left the group to pursue a solo career  and was replaced by new york-based freestyle act  

trilogy in august the group released their second  album titled anything goes the lead single do  

you want to get funky which featured vocals from  zelma martha and trilogy made it into the top 40  

and earned the group their sixth number  one dancehead sadly on january 24th 1995  

david cole passed away from spinal meningitis he  was 32 years old it's been widely speculated that  

aids was the real cause of his death but that  was never confirmed in november 1995 cnc music  

factory released their self-titled third album the  record was released by robert using the cnc name  

though it didn't feature any musical contributions  from david zelma or martha the album's lead  

single i'll always be around became their seventh  number one dancehead the second single don't stop  

the remix which didn't chart at all would be the  group's final release before officially disbanding  

with the timing of martha's lawsuit also happening  during the height of the milly vanilli lip-syncing  

scandal zelma found herself being accused of not  having any real talent and only featured by the  

group because of her looks in the same rolling  stone interview with martha zelma spoke candidly  

about how difficult it was to move past all the  drama for 20 years i blame myself i experienced  

severe depression no record label would touch me  i was branded a model and fraud my career was over  

i was blacklisted chewed up and spit out i felt  horrible about myself for the part i played  

as a child i was a fan of martha wash i still am i  apologized to her several years after the scandal  

placed blame on myself and claimed responsibility  for my role martha's vocals were used as lead and  

i believe she had the right to sue for proper  compensation over the years she's continued  

to sing and release the odd single here and  there while also dabbling in the acting world  

the year after david's passing robert released  an album of new material under the name robbie  

robb's club world as well as a compilation album  containing past singles and unreleased material  

recorded by cnc music factory he also released a  couple of albums as a member of the new york-based  

hip-hop group mvp before taking an extended  sabbatical he decided to briefly reform cnc music  

factory in 2010 with dj record producer songwriter  and keyboardist eric cupper replacing david they  

released a couple of songs over the next year  featuring singer scarlett santana before quietly  

fading away again he popped back up five years  later for the first time as a solo artist with  

the release of the tracks set me free featuring  vocals by kimberly davis of the band chic  

his latest effort came in 2021 when after some  encouragement from his teenage son he decided  

to get back to making music again he produced and  released the song yo soy latino vamos a balar by  

latinos del mundo freedom released his self-titled  solo debut album and only one to date in 1993  

however it failed to garner him anywhere near the  type of success he'd experienced with cnc after  

also giving acting a try he went off the radar for  a while in 2005 he made a bold move and acquired  

the federal trademark to use the name cnc music  factory using the word and for live performances  

even though his name doesn't have a single c  in it he was apparently able to accomplish this  

because he'd been performing solo shows across the  country under the group's name since the late 90s  

essentially establishing common law trademark  rights another fact in freedom's favor was  

neither robert nor david trademarked the name  back in the 90s when they came up with it

robert did reveal that he asked freedom  to bill himself as freedom williams  

formerly of cnc music factory while touring and he  did honor that request for a little while until he  

started presenting himself as an actual member  of cnc by 2014 freedom had renewed his trademark  

to cnc music factory with an ampersand he now  owns the trademark rights for the name for all  

related efforts not just live performances  founding member robert was understandably  

furious about it and let his feelings be  known in a lengthy facebook post in july  

2016. in the letter he revealed that he's prepared  to take the matter to court and asks freedom why  

he's stealing and profiting from their hard  work how did freedom respond by blocking him

according to robert freedom signed a contract  to become one of cnc music factory's featured  

artists under the terms of that contract which was  essentially an open-ended development deal he and  

david would provide freedom with opportunities  to record and perform with their group as well  

as other groups that they managed the agreement  did not frame freedom as a founder or owner of the  

group that designation was reserved exclusively  for robert and david as of the making of this  

video there doesn't appear to be any evidence that  robert did file any kind of lawsuit on freedom in  

the summer of 2019 freedom made a definitive  response about the issue to whatsup.com i'm  

the only one that really kept going he's not an  artist he doesn't perform and he quit the business  

once you quit the business if you own a trademark  you lose it he's semi-retired he wasn't using it  

he got mad because he wanted to have it he wants  me to give him money that's not going to happen  

today freedom continues to perform and tour under  the name cnc music factory and he's also taken up  

construction as a side gig thanks for watching  please like share and comment also don't forget  

to subscribe and turn on your notifications so  you won't miss any future videos see you next time